Fighting The Wind
by AccentFetish
Summary: He knows he’s going to fall back to earth. He knows he’ll never win. He knows that the wind will continue to chill him and there will be no one to warm him back up.


This is the better and tweaked version of this chapter. There may be more coming but I'm not entirely sure.

Disclaimer- I don't own Hana-kimi… Now wouldn't that be funny if I did?

I like to watch him jump. Everyone thinks it's strange that I would go all the way to his school, just to hide behind the stands and watch him practice. They just don't get it.

When they see him, they see what he's known for. Being a cocky bastered who's always so smug. They see him as a person who needs to be brought down a notch. They don't get that he's already at their level, maybe even slightly below it. If they just looked **at** him for once, they'd see that.

They also see his competitiveness with the rival he can only beat in jumping and automatically cheer the rival on. I've always wonder what he must feel like when they were competing that day, the day it rained and he won while no one in the crowds made a noise. I've wondered what it would be like to have everyone side with the person against you, just because they hate you.

I watch him though. When he's all alone on the field it's different. He's different. He doesn't have to make arrogant remarks just to cover up the cracks in his life. It's just him and the wind.

He always starts by taking a look around the field. Like to make sure that no one is really there to see him make more attempts to get back into grace. He never sees me, whether or not that's by choice I'm never sure. Our eyes will meet from my hiding place but he just keeps scanning the area like I'm not there. And to him, maybe I'm not.

Next he runs his hands through his white hair. The wind always blows and he always shivers. He hates the wind. The way it makes you cold. The way it forces you out of its way. He's too stubborn to let the wind beat him.

So he'll begin to run. Slowly at first but then picking up great speed. The bar is raised to a height he's never jumped before. He's always going higher and higher when he's alone. Sometimes I wonder why he doesn't try to jump higher in front of other people.

He doesn't want to be scorned. He's already hated by most the people he knows and even by those he doesn't. The people who've heard of him, the people who are friends of his ultimate rival. It makes me want to laugh. The title Mr. Overconfident shouldn't go to him. He doesn't try when others are around. He knows they'll call him a show off and send him glares from across the field. He doesn't want to be hated.

His feet will push off the ground. His body will soar through the air and over the bar. Clearing it, just barely.

I once heard her say that his rival jumps so gracefully. It's not the same. If it was I wouldn't always be here watching. When he jumps, it's not graceful. It's far from it. He's in an intimate battle when he jumps.

He's fighting the wind.

Each time his body falls back down to earth he knows that he's lost yet again. The look on his face, the look that shows the disappointment that he has to come back down. It makes me sad.

I've asked people on my school's own track team why they jump. Some said it was because they thought it was fun. Others because it was freeing. I've often wondered why he does it. Why? He knows he's going to fall back to earth. He knows he'll never win. He knows that the wind will continue to chill him and there will be no one to warm him back up.

Then he'll get back up, angry that he can never be successful in his goal. Angry that he never had a chance. He'll punch the metal poles that support the bar he'd just jumped over. I always turn my head away to give him his privacy but I can never look away for too long. He'll scream and hit it again and again. When he's exhausted he just falls to his knees, looking like a sad rag doll, limp and defeated.

I've always wondered what it would be like to be him. To have not one person ever say, "I'm cheering for him!" To reserve a place for your family in the stands each competition even though you know that they don't care enough to make time in their schedules to fill the seats.

I can just imagine what it was like for him, after that one contest. He would walk into his house and see his sisters lying down on the couch in front of the TV, completely unaware of his existence.

He would go into the kitchen and his mother would be seated there, trying to sort though all the paper work from the restaurant. "Hey." She wouldn't look up. Only answer with a simple, "Mmhmm?"

"How was your day?" "It was fine. Cleaned up around the house. Went shopping with some friends." He would pretend she just hadn't remembered. Leaving the kitchen, first place trophy practically being dragged behind him to his room and thrown into the pile with all his others.

But each time he would stand back up. He would stare at the bar and raise it even higher. Higher then he could possibly ever hope to jump. His fight isn't with the bar. No, it's with the wind. A battle he refuses to lose.

So the "he" is Kagurazaka but you guys still have to guess who the narrator is. If I do a second chapter then it will be sort of obvious. I guess that he would be OOC though… Sorry. Please review!


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